By Ivie Drogin ‘25, Arts and Entertainment Staff Writer 

Image courtesy of Marvel Studios

“With great power comes great responsibility” takes on a whole new meaning in Spider-Man: No Way Home (NWH), the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With an excitement inducing release, NWH ties up the Spider-Man character arc developed over the course of two decades in three different franchises. NWH broke the box office and became the eighth highest grossing movie in history. Its significant messages reached over 20 million people on the weekend of its premiere and countless more in the weeks after its release. 

The film takes place directly after Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), which ends with the shocking reveal of Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) alter ego to the public. With his newly received fame dominating his everyday life, Parker struggles to find privacy to spend time with his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon). Tired of having his every move monitored by the public, Parker attempts to resolve the situation by seeking counsel from his “wizard” friend, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and asking him to cast a spell to make the world forget that he is Spider-Man. Because of Peter’s childlike indecisiveness while Dr. Strange is conjuring, the spell is altered, causing a breach in the multiverse* and allowing villains from different realities to enter his universe. 

In addition to the traditional storyline of fighting villains, NWH gives a new perspective on the effects that superhero life has on people other than the hero themself. Peter kills Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), the villain in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which creates problems that affect MJ and Ned’s futures, specifically their applications to college. The trio applies to MIT, and gets three rejection letters because of the group’s connections to the controversy surrounding Spider-Man. While college seems like a miniscule problem in comparison to alien attackers, it leads to Peter’s doubt that his presence in his loved one’s lives does more harm than good. 

The movie sends a deeper message about our ethical duties through Peter’s decisions while fighting the inter-universal villains. With inspiration from his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), Peter attempts to help the villains through their problems, rather than just defeat them. Using his exceptional scientific knowledge, he fixes issues in their failed science experiments that originally caused their villainous instincts. Though this is certainly not the easier path, Peter is inspired by the generosity of his aunt to embrace his “responsibilities” and try to change his adversaries from corrupt criminals back to ordinary people. 

Though it is just a superhero movie, NWH touches on deeper themes of rectifying the past, ethical and moral obligations, teenage stress, and relationships. The salient duel between ethics and desire makes NWH unlike any other Marvel movie. With heartbreaking last scenes, this movie dodges the clichéd formula and leaves the audience with minimal closure that keeps them wanting more. Whether this is the first Marvel movie you have watched or the final movie to wrap up the two decade long Spider-Man journey, the varied array of messages make the movie universally appealing to anyone in the audience. 

*The theory that there are many universes with different versions of people happening all at once. In Marvel, the explanation for why the same characters have different actors playing them.